Britain, US Call for G20 Countries to Reform Economies

Britain and the United States called on leading world powers Monday to overhaul their economies and keep budgets in line to encourage growth as G20 finance ministers met in Istanbul.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne warned of a forecast slowdown in global growth, deflationary risks in some countries and a shortfall in demand.

They said the solution should include reforms.

"Domestically that must include better infrastructure, support for small businesses, regulatory reforms that safeguard financial stability and improved education for all," they said.

"It must also include strong efforts to address impediments that make certain economies structurally less competitive, including the variety of rigidities that constrain growth in several European countries."

They also called on debt-laden Greece, where a new radical leftist government has taken power, to "implement a credible and comprehensive approach to reform, recovery and economic growth."

They said that Ukraine should receive increased financial support, warning that the conflict there as well as tensions in the Middle East carried wider "geopolitical risks" for the world economy.

The Group of 20 countries, which account for more than 80 percent of the global economy, are meeting in Turkey, which currently holds the group's presidency.

Ahead of the meeting, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde urged the ministers to fulfill their pledges to revive the faltering global economy.

"Without action, we could see the global economic supertanker continuing to be stuck in the shallow waters of sub-par growth and meager job creation," Lagarde said in a blog on the IMF website.